eSports News UK interviews League of Legends streamer and YouTuber Dan “Foxdrop” Wyatt in an exclusive video.
We speak about how he got into content creation, how he gets the balance between being informative and entertaining, and the advantage of being an English streamer.
There’s also some lighthearted content, like his views on real life foxes, cups of tea, getting kissed by drunk UK mid-laners, staring at Bjergsen and Essex accents.
Here are some of our choice quotes from the interview (which you can watch in full at the bottom of this article):
On getting into content creation…
“I used to be massively into Counter-Strike, and my friends would drift between games. I had just blown £40 on a new Call of Duty and I only played it once and that was it!
“So I thought I’m not going to bother playing too much League of Legends because you guys will get bored of it and I don’t want to waste my time or money.
“And here I am, six or seven years later, still playing League!”
On making educational LoL videos…
“I think it plays to my strengths. I feel I’m good at educating people and it comes more naturally to me. Getting a balance between education and entertainment is what I want to have.
“I have a personality. Maybe this is something which is quite common with English streamers, they tend to have personality. Maybe it’s just the way we speak and talk about fish and chips and cups of tea!
“My strength as a YouTuber is taking concepts and ideas and turning them into a format people can digest and absorb for themselves. But to transport the information from your brain to someone else’s is not as easy as it sounds.
“It’s a YouTuber’s job to make stuff interesting! I’m boring as f*ck when I talk normally, I have a really monotone voice. But when I get worked up and passionate about something, you know when I intro my videos, you’ve got to sell it and be interesting. I’m not really excited and energetic in person. Unless you’re Gross Gore, he’s 100% how he is online and in person, he’s one in a million.”
Check out our full video interview chat with Foxdrop here:
On the state of League of Legends & the jungle…
“I think it’s not that bad. I remember Riot once made the jungle so hard that only a handful of people could even clear competitively.
“This season, so many more junglers are viable. Even if you don’t include those that are typically viable, you can still work with them because Hunter’s Potion solves a lot of your problems by yourself. If you want to play a mage in the jungle, Runic’s Echo is really good to help you clear, the sustain, mana and damage it gives you is really good. If you’re a tank, Cinderhulk is really good too.
“The variety in the jungle is nice. I think it’s in a pretty good spot at the moment. Whenever Bloodrazor champions get really good, that’s a problem. It’s not fun to play with or against. When it was stacking, Sated Devourer… that’s why they changed it to Bloodrazor, so I could say it!
“I wish they hadn’t nerfed Gragas into the ground, that sucked because he was my one trick getting me to Master tier, but outside of that it’s pretty good! I think Gragas was nerfed a little too far, but I’m hoping it’s still at that point where I can still play him and maybe squeeze into Master tier.”
“Maybe this is something which is quite common with English streamers – they tend to have personality. Maybe it’s just the way we speak and talk about fish and chips and cups of tea!”
On his top 9 jungle champs of the moment…
“I think the best for solo queue right now is probably Elise, she’s probably the best all-around champion, she’s very good at the early game – ganking and snowballing.
“Zac is really good at initiating fights and ganking. RekSai is still pretty top-tier in my opinion. There are so many junglers.
“I think Olaf is decent and Evelynn is a bit hidden OP. Nidalee is still ridiculously strong if you’re good with her, I hate that champion. Lee Sin can also work if you’re really good with him.
“There’s some weird ones too, I think Diana and Rumble jungle are really good. I have been thrashed by them the most. I remember playing against a Rumble who was level 8 at 7 minutes in, which is genuinely absurd.”
On the UK eSports scene…
“I don’t follow the UK League of Legends eSports too much. My main account is Diamond 2 99lp so it’s still up there, but back in the day I was higher. I don’t know a lot of the players, but I know Brixton. I met him at Worlds in London last year.
“I remember the second day I met him, he was pretty drunk and kissed me (it wasn’t that kind of kiss! It was a kind of swoop in on the cheek kind of thing). The day before, we went out to dinner at an Italian place and I thought it’d be nice to pay for dinner for people, I’d saved my YouTube money – why not? Munchables was there, a caster for ESL, and a few other people.
“This was one of the first time I’d met these people. I think Brixton was kind of shy, but the next day, when he had liquid courage, he gave me a kiss and left! So Brixton and I go back, I’m friends with him from that, I’ve played with him and saw him at League Fest. And if there’s any opportunity to deliver some quality banter on Twitter, why not?
“The thing with UK eSports is as a country it’s still pretty uncool to be a gamer. Outside of the FIFA and CoD crowd, I think being a competitive gamer is not what many English folk do. It’s not part of our culture.”
“I used to be massively into Counter-Strike, I blew £40 on a new Call of Duty and I only played it once! So I thought I’m not going to bother playing too much League of Legends because you guys will get bored of it and I don’t want to waste my time or money… and here I am, six or seven years later, still playing League!”
On Riot Games and League Fest…
“This is the great thing about Riot for me. They treat the community really well. Riot has hundreds of people working for them compared to Valve, which has like five people working on CSGO and Dota 2. There’s a reason why Riot hire so many bloody people and it’s because they actually do things properly. We have like 20 patches a year, which is a lot.
“As far as being a content creator in the League of Legends scene, as long as you don’t make Nazi/nine-eleven/porn/hentai content and those kind of jokes, then you’re in Riot’s good books and they look after you. I’m not saying Riot give me money to make videos – they don’t – but they do view content creators as part of the community. They care about the community and are a very community-focused developer.
“Just to clarify, I’m not taking a sh*t on Blizzard or Valve. There was a problem around cheaters in Counter-Strike a while back, and Valve were quiet about it. If there was a similar fundamental problem with League, Riot would have at least said something about it.
“If Riot want to put a little fox champion or monster into the game, or like that suicidal frog at the start of a match… just put a fox in there!”
On his dog Shadwell…
“I’ve got headset wires plugged into my PC and he keeps getting tangled in that. I was downstairs watching TV with my dad and I heard a thumping upstairs. My dad asked to check it out with me. And I said: ‘It’s not a robber – it’s Shad!’
“He’s always knocking my PC’s surge protector over, and I don’t know how.
“He’s walking over my light. If you hear some bumbaclart doing something, it’s probably Shad!”
On streaming…
Foxdrop also shares his views on the current streaming landscape, recent controversies in that space, the challenges of being a full-time content creator and what it’s like having a brother who is also a YouTuber.
We covered his thoughts in a separate article below:
‘Being sponsored doesn’t make streamers or YouTubers evil’ – Foxdrop
Check out the full video interview below:
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
